National Lacrosse League may have taken another st

With an announcement today from Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano, it appears the National Lacrosse League may be one step closer to eventually returning to New York. Forest City Ratner, the group developing the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, has been selected to undertake a $229 million renovation of the Nassau Coliseum, according to a story posted in the Long Island Herald. The Ratner group's original proposal, as reported by IL Indoor in May, includes in its vision bringing an NLL team to the arena.

The new Coliseum, which the report says will take about 15 months to complete, will include an entertainment complex featuring theatres, a bowling alley, and other things and is also expected to be home to several games for the New York Islanders, who have played in the building for their entire existence but have announced plans to move to the Barclays Centre in 2015.

Bruce Ratner, the group's executive chairman, told CBS New York that the renovation will completely redo the building. "Its got to look beautiful, iconic. Because there are 3 million people that live on the Island, and theyve gotta have a place  whether its entertainment, whether its sports  theyve gotta have a great place."

While a team returning to New York is still down the road a way, NLL Commissioner George Daniel said the possibility is promising. "We are encouraged by the plans to renovate Nassau Coliseum," said NLL Commissioner George Daniel. "We look forward to continuing discussions to bring the National Lacrosse League back to Long Island where lacrosse has such strong roots. "